I am quite confused about this statement. What was wrong with that headline? She had surgery. "going under the knife" is slang for surgery. What's wrong with that?

It's something you might write about a football player or Monster Truck Driver...not the beautiful, elegant, former US champion, Alissa. It just struck me as WRONG, even though the facts were correct. Part of it was the timing and context

My favorite IN title was "Czisny goes under the knife". (correct- she had surgery, but to say that about Alissa shows whoever wrote it has not a clue about who she is)

Originally Posted by centerpt1

It's something you might write about a football player or Monster Truck Driver...not the beautiful, elegant, former US champion, Alissa. It just struck me as WRONG, even though the facts were correct. Part of it was the timing and context

To defend IN in this case:
Not fair to say that the person who wrote the headline has no clue as to who Czisny is.
For IN's readership, she is first and foremost an athlete (just like a football player), and she had surgery.
The same tone that you would deem appropriate for a football player is not inappropriate for Czisny, IMHO. The headline does not negate her beauty and elegance. YMMV.

I would note that SEO strategy usually determines how online headlines are composed. For that reason, I believe that they often are not as "literary" as headlines from the olden days that were written only for traditional hard-copy newspapers and magazines.
(If an SEO expert is out there, please correct me if I am mistaken.)

It's something you might write about a football player or Monster Truck Driver...not the beautiful, elegant, former US champion, Alissa. It just struck me as WRONG, even though the facts were correct. Part of it was the timing and context

An athlete has surgery. They go under the knife. Not wrong, just factual. Alissa's grace or elegance has absolutely nothing to do with it. A headline is a headline, and "Csziny goes under the knife" is a whole lot more catchy and eye-drawing than "Csziny has surgery."

To defend IN in this case:
Not fair to say that the person who wrote the headline has no clue as to who Czisny is.
For IN's readership, she is first and foremost an athlete (just like a football player), and she had surgery.
The same tone that you would deem appropriate for a football player is not inappropriate for Czisny, IMHO. The headline does not negate her beauty and elegance. YMMV.

Originally Posted by Tonichelle

suggesting Figure Skating is not a sport? what makes her different - other than she wears a tutu and is in an individual sport to that of a team sport?

actually most articles about football players facing surgery do not get titled "so and so goes under the knife"

I am the one who said above that Czisny IS NO different from a football player. Have no idea why you think my opinion is otherwise.

FWIW, it took me mere seconds to find four random headlines about football players going under the knife.
No doubt that countless more are out there.